Dostoevsky sinh năm 1821 ở Moskva, là con trai thứ hai trong gia đình có 7 anh em. Cha ông là Mikhail, vốn dòng dõi quý tộc nhưng đã sa sút, một bác sĩ quân y sau khi nghỉ hưu làm việc tại bệnh viện Maryinski chuyên chữa trị các người nghèo. Mẹ ông là Maria Feodorovna, con một thương gia. Bệnh viện Maryinski, nơi Dostoevsky sống hồi nhỏ, nằm ở chỗ tồi tệ nhất của thành phố, một khu vực bao gồm một nghĩa trang cho tội nhân, một trại thương điên và một cô nhi viện cho trẻ. | Notes from the Underground FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Prepared and Published by Ebd PART I Underground The author of the diary and the diary itself are of course imaginary. Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may but positively must exist in our society when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed. I have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done one of the characters of the recent past. He is one of the representatives of a generation still living. In this fragment entitled Underground this person introduces himself and his views and as it were tries to explain the causes owing to which he has made his appearance and was bound to make his appearance in our midst. In the second fragment there are added the actual notes of this person concerning certain events in his S NOTE. I I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However I know nothing at all about my disease and do not know for certain what ails me. I don t consult a doctor for it and never have though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides I am extremely superstitious sufficiently so to respect medicine anyway I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious but I am superstitious . No I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well I understand it though. Of course I can t explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite I am perfectly well aware that I cannot pay out the doctors by not consulting them I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still if I don t consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad well--let it get worse I have been going on like that for a long time--twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I
